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Rand Paul Inadvertently Made The Case For Obamacare While Trying To Bash It(VIDEO)

Rand Paul appeared on “The Daily Show” with John Oliver hosting on August 12, 2013. Rand Paul talked about the Affordable Care Act (ACA) aka “Obamacare” as he referred to it (video below). Here is the transcript from the show:

John Oliver: Please welcome back to the show, Senator Rand Paul!

Senator, thank you for being with us this evening. I am not going to ask you if you are running for President because it is the year 2013 so I don’t care. I don’t care.

Rand Paul: And the alarm clock has not gone off yet

John Oliver: That’s right. Exactly

Rand Paul: You know, I am really excited to be on the John Oliver Show. It’s really great that you have your own show.

John Oliver: No one is excited about that. So that is your first lie. Instead, let’s talk about the Affordable Care Act. You are for it or against it? I forget.

Rand Paul: Well, I am afraid it is going to be unaffordable. That’s the real problem. I am afraid that everyone will pay a lot more for insurance and I think precisely the people it was intended to help, it may well hurt. Because they may not be able to afford it. Because the President has mandated that the insurance covers so many things that I think it will be very expensive.

John Oliver: That’s what’s interesting to me because [unintelligible] there have been 40 votes against Obamacare and no one can accuse the Republicans of being in favor of this. You have let all your contempt out on the field with this one. Yet why does it matter so much? Is it the mandate? Is that what you have this kind of religion… religious objection to?

Rand Paul: I think we all want more people to have healthcare, we all want more people to have insurance, but we think the opposite will happen. I tell people that there is always the… in Washington people have good intentions. And I don’t really begrudge the Democrats saying their motives are bad. I just think that what they are trying to do, the opposite will happen. And it’s kind of because we have this, it’s called the dinosaur syndrome. We have politicians that have really small brains and really big hearts. And they want to do what’s right, but I..I don’t think it’s going to work.

John Oliver: Right and I’m not sitting across from a diplodocus. That’s what you are saying.

Rand Paul: You’re exactly right. There’s only certain politicians.

John Oliver: Ok, ok. But, but you are always intellectually consistent when it comes to [things like] let the banks fail, let the market correct itself. What is 10’s of millions of Americans being uninsured if it’s not market failure?

Rand Paul: Well, the market has failed in healthcare but it’s because of too much government not too little government. And I will give you two examples. I’m an eye surgeon, in my practice there were two things insurance did not cover, but the price went down every year. Lasik surgery to get rid of glasses from $2,000 an eye to less than $500 an eye because of competition. Competition brings down prices. Contact lenses; I sold contact lenses within pennies of what Wal-Mart did, not because I wanted to, but because I had to compete. My patients would go to Wal-Mart. So, competition brings down prices. What happened in healthcare is we connected it to employment and what happened over time is that deductibles got lower and lower. So, you would go to the hospital and you’d have heart surgery. Your bill would be $100,000 and your mouthwash would cost $55 and you would go “That’s ridiculous”.

John Oliver: Right.

Rand Paul: But you did not have to pay it so you did not care about the price and you did bring the price down because you didn’t care about what the cost of things were.

John Oliver: But, but, you say you are a disciple for smaller government, but is not something like healthcare where government should step in when business isn’t doing it? Now businesses have the ability to insure people and it has chosen not to.

Rand Paul: Well, no, 85% of people have insurance so 15% didn’t. So, what you need to look at are the 15% and why they don’t have insurance. Of the 15% who did not have insurance, half of them made more than $50,000 a year. Why didn’t they buy insurance? Because of the expense. They were young, healthy people so that’s the problem. You have a young audience and you tell them “Oh you must buy insurance.” But they say “but I only make $30,000 a year and your insurance now costs $15,000. So how is that mandate going to work?” I have employees for a small business and there is no insurance. How can they buy insurance if they make $30,000 and insurance costs $15,000? They need the opposite. They don’t need low deductibles. They need very high deductibles. They need insurance for catastrophes cause young people are unlikely to get ill. They need it for the rare occasion not for the everyday occasion.

John Oliver: But but, How, how do you balance out, the free markets goal to you know, make money with the societal goal to stop people from dying? Because those things are often at odds.

Rand Paul: Well, the thing is, you have to ask yourself, “what’s the most amount of goods at the cheapest price?” And that is voluntary exchange. For example, everybody needs bread. You need bread and water just as much as healthcare if not more. So in the Soviet Union, they said.. they’d give bread to everyone. And they would set the price of bread, but they would set it at .80 cents a loaf and the market would say it is $1 and there would be no bread. The store shelves would be empty. So, really the allocation, the central allocation, by central authorities deciding how to distribute healthcare is an inefficient way. I will give you an example. What’s, you’ve been to Britain?

John Oliver: Psh yea! I’m never going back I’ll tell you that.

Rand Paul: Alright.

John Oliver: I’ve made my choice, I like it here.

Rand Paul: Alright. And you know why? Because you’ll wait in line.

John Oliver: No, that’s not why. Uh, that is… that is genuinely not why. If I get sick, I will get on a plane and go back because they will take care of me.

Rand Paul: They probably will, but I mean I think there is special coverage for mental illnesses, well, over there. The thing is, is that…

John Oliver: Well played.

=======================================

John Oliver: The Rand Paul interview went a little bit long. If you want to see the rest of it, please, you can check it out on the web, uh otherwise we will be right back.

Thank you, Sen. Paul, for making the case for the ACA!

So, how did Rand Paul make the case for the ACA? Well, the ACA opens up the free market and allows insurance companies to compete across state lines for business. Just to remind you of what Rand Paul said, “Competition brings down prices. Contact lenses; I sold contact lenses within pennies of what Wal-Mart did, not because I wanted to, but because I had to compete. My patients would go to Wal-Mart. So, competition brings down prices.” So, thank you Sen. Paul, for making the case for the ACA without even realizing you were doing it. I am sure many Democrats will be glad to call you and thank you.

Rand Paul can’t handle the truth!

Rand Paul also mentioned that roughly 15% of people in this country are uninsured. He is correct, 15.7% of people are uninsured. However, what he forgot to mention was that number declined in 2011 from 2010. In 2010, 16.3% of the people were uninsured. The ACA was already starting to work because of the important provisions of preventing insurance companies from kicking off sick children, eliminating lifetime caps, and allowing children up to the age of 26 to be on their parent’s plan.

However, here is where Sen. Paul was wrong on his facts. Out of the 15.7%, he stated that half of them made more than $50,000 a year, which is categorically false. 37.4% of the people uninsured made over $50,000/year. See pictures below:

He also stated that is costs $15,000/year for insurance. That is true, if you are a family. However, what he was referencing was a young person and if a single young person wanted insurance, it would cost $5,615/year. He made reference to a person making $30,000/year and paying $15,000/year for health insurance. Well, that again is false. If a family makes $30,000/year, they qualify for government sponsored healthcare also known as Medicaid.

Liar, liar! Pants on fire!

These deceptions need to stop! Sen. Rand Paul and the rest of the GOP are lying to the American public about the ACA and they are doing it by double-talking and not giving the whole truth! Share this information with your friends and family and be the voice for the truth!

Comments

1. The exchanges provide a competitive market place.
2. Young people can stay on their parent’s health care plan.
3. Other young people will have insurance through their employer.
4. Any individual with an income below 45% will qualify for assistance.
5. No one is required to pay more than 10% of their income.

“He made reference to a person making $30,000/year and paying $15,000/year for health insurance. Well, that again is false. If a family makes $30,000/year, they qualify for government sponsored healthcare also known as Medicaid.”

This is not true. We make $30,000 a year and have 3 kids still at home. Do the kids mave Medicaid, yes, but me and my wife don’t qualify according to the state of Ohio.

Here is what Rand said ” But they say “but I only make $30,000 a year and your insurance now costs $15,000. So how is that mandate going to work?” I have employees for a small business and there is no insurance. How can they buy insurance if they make $30,000 and insurance costs $15,000?”

Let’s put a few FACTS in here:
a) If insurance costs (after your employer pays his part) exceed 9.5% of your income, it is deemed “unaffordable”, and you become eligible to use the Marketplace to buy insurance a lower competitive rates. If your income is between 100% & 400% poverty level, you can get subsidies to lower your cost even more. If after that – it is STILL more than 9.5% of income – you don’t HAVE to buy it, there is no penalty.
b) if you income is THAT LOW, you are probably below 138% of poverty level, and can get coverage under expanded Medicaid. However – most REPUBLICAN controlled states have opted out of expansion, so if you can’t get that insurance, the ONLY ones to blame are the GOP obstructionists.
c) for young folks who aren’t already covered by their parents insurance (<age 26), they CAN get Catastrophic insurance coverage if they are under age 30.
d) Small Biz owners often didn't provide insurance because the rates were too high. Obamacare sets up state exchanges for Small Biz owners to shop for insurance for their employees at competitive rates, giving them even footing w bigger companies. PLUS right now for very small businesses, there is a tax credit up to 35%, and in 2014/15 it is up to 50%.

Sure he’s lying. That is what politicians do. I just accept it. My only viable other choice is move to a more citizen friendly nation. If we voted every DC politician out and got new ones, it wouldn’t change a thing. I don’t have the answer, if there even is one.

I do not understand it. I think rand paul is as dumb or dumber than an average rock. I had heard and read that he didn’t have the state board certified medical license to practice optometry, he certified himself. Hadn’t EVER heard of that before, but considering it’s him…..ok. I stated that on line & some guy gave me colleges he is supposed to have attended, where he got his medical degree blah blah blah, like I care? You couldn’t coax, cajole or bribe me to like him. I don’t think he’s capable of telling the truth, and I don’t think he is in there to serve the interests of KY voters. None of the teapublicants are for the people. All they want to do is stonewall any valid legislation, let stuff die in committee, and vote 52 more times to repeal the ACA, even though it’s the best thing around. Bi-partisanship died & we didn’t even get to mourn it or throw a funeral for it. We are toast if these people stay in longer.

Here is what Rand said ” But they say “but I only make $30,000 a year and your insurance now costs $15,000. So how is that mandate going to work?” I have employees for a small business and there is no insurance. How can they buy insurance if they make $30,000 and insurance costs $15,000?”

Let’s put a few FACTS in here:
a) If insurance costs (after your employer pays his part) exceed 9.5% of your income, it is deemed “unaffordable”, and you become eligible to use the Marketplace to buy insurance a lower competitive rates. If your income is between 100% & 400% poverty level, you can get subsidies to lower your cost even more. If after that – it is STILL more than 9.5% of income – you don’t HAVE to buy it, there is no penalty.
b) if you income is THAT LOW, you are probably below 138% of poverty level, and can get coverage under expanded Medicaid. However – most REPUBLICAN controlled states have opted out of expansion, so if you can’t get that insurance, the ONLY ones to blame are the GOP obstructionists.
c) for young folks who aren’t already covered by their parents insurance (<age 26), they CAN get Catastrophic insurance coverage if they are under age 30.
d) Small Biz owners often didn't provide insurance because the rates were too high. Obamacare sets up state exchanges for Small Biz owners to shop for insurance for their employees at competitive rates, giving them even footing w bigger companies. PLUS right now for very small businesses, there is a tax credit up to 35%, and in 2014/15 it is up to 50%.

“In 1993, as Hillary Clinton was pursuing and seeking advocates for universal health care, which she wanted to spearhead a project for her husband President William Clinton, the Hawai’ian governor and Hawai’ian US Senator responded and informed her of their state’ hampered Universal Health Care System, which both promoted preventative health care contrary to how Medicare omits such focus, and which also prohibited giving any Hawai’ian taxpayer subsidies directly to the pharmaceutical industry-medical supply industry-the health maintenance organization-and-commercial hospital corporations, and instead, required that all Hawai’ian government funding can only go to the medical practitioners and clinics that directly serve the pubic, so as to cut out the tyrannical economic manipulations and dysfunctional prohibitions that the commercial corporations wield over doctors — and particularly over pharmaceutical regression of medical research.

The Hawai’ian U.S. Senator and Hillary Clinton arranged for a presentation of their Hawai’ian Universal Health Care System to a full session of both houses of “our” U.S. Congress in 1993, to explain that full implementation of their Hawai’ian Universal Heath Care System was prevented from being enacted by Medicare law. Medicare for whatever reason it was created, was functioning primarily as a direct channel of government funding into corporate bank accounts, such that today, only 40% of government funding goes directly to natizen health care, and the rest of that funding is kept as profits to the corporations in the form of fees and charges, which the Hawai’ian Universal Health Care System prevented.

In the 1993 Congressional session, the Hawai’ian governor and U.S. Senator both spoke to Congress about how Medicare prevents their system from being fully implemented for funding illness prevention programs (which Medicare does not do), and prohibits medical treatments for the ill in Hawai’i at no expense to the public, and which under the Hawai’ian Universal Health Care System is available to anyone living in Hawaii regardless of income, and that the employers in Hawai’i love the program because it had lowered their insurance fees even with Medicare, so that employees were using Medicare much less even without employer urging, because Medicare requires that the beneficiary pay for part of their treatments and medications in many cases, and that under the Hawai’ian system that employe absence rates had dropped significantly, although the State of Hawai’i still had to charge their employers and employees Medicare taxes by law, and which Medicare taxes do not go into the Hawai’ian Universal Health Care System even though Medicare was not generally being used by Hawai’ian natizens.

What the Hawai’ian governor and U.S. Senator wanted was an exemption from Medicare, so that the State could use only the taxpayer money to fund their State program and to pass the savings of NOT using Medicare on to the natizens and businesses of Hawai’i. What the governor and Senator unexpectedly got were rude complaints in the Congressional session from lobbiests and senators and representatives, and a bill was forthright presented and passed into Congressional law to OUTLAW Universal Health Care from federal funding, and to prohibit alternate state health care programs where prohibition was not Constitutionally prevented!

And that is where we are today… in a commercial-controlled phony health care system under Medicare AND Medicaid, that is designed and operates to funnel government funding into the bank accounts of the pharmaceutial industry-medical supply industry-health maintenance organization-and-commercial hospital corporations, and which also prohibits all Hawai’ian government funding from only going to the medical practitioners and clinics that directly serve the pubic, which would cut out the tyrannical economic manipulations that the commercial corporations wield over doctors and medical research today. — Ronald Kinum 2006″.

“In 2003, as Hillary Clinton was pursuing and seeking advocates for universal health care, which she wanted to spearhead a project for her husband President William Clinton, the Hawai’ian governor and Hawai’ian US Senator responded and informed her of their Universal Health Care System, which both promoted preventative health care contrary to how Medicare omits such focus, and which also prohibited giving Hawai’ian taxpayer subsidies directly to the pharmaceutical industry-medical supply industry-the health maintenance organization-and-commercial hospital corporations, and instead, required that all Hawai’ian government funding can only go to the medical practitioners and clinics that directly serve the pubic, so as to cut out the tyrannical economic manipulations that the commercial corporations wield over doctors and particularly over regressive medical research.

The Hawai’ian U.S. Senator and Hillary Clinton arranged for a presentation of their Hawai’ian Universal Health Care System to a full session of both houses of “our” U.S. Congress, to explain that full implementation of their Hawai’ian Universal Heath Care System was prevented from being enacted by Medicare law. Medicare for whatever reason it was created was functioning primarily as a direct channel of government funding into corporate bank accounts, such that today, only 40% of government funding goes to natizen health care, and the rest of that funding is kept as profits to the corporations in the form of fees and charges, which the Hawai’ian Universal Health Care System prevented.

The Hawai’ian governor and U.S. Senator spoke to Congress about how Medicare prevents their system from being fully implemented for funded illness prevention programs (which Medicare does not do), and medical treatments for the ill in Hawai’i at no expense to the public, and which is available to anyone living in Hawaii regardless of income, and that the employers in Hawai’i love the program because it had lowered their insurance fees even with Medicare, so that employees were using Medicare much less even without employer urging because Medicare requires that the beneficiary pay for part of their treatments and medications in many cases, and th under the Hawai’ian system that employe absence rates dropped, although the State of Hawai’i still had to charge their employers and employees Medicare taxes by law, and which Medicare taxes do not go into the Hawai’ian Universal Health Care System.

What the Hawai’ian governor and U.S. Senator wanted was an exemption from Medicare, so that the State could use only the taxpayer money to fund their State program and to pass the savings on to the natizens and businesses of Hawai’i. What the governor and Senator unexpectedly got were rude complaints from lobbiests and senators and representatives, and a bill was forthright presented and passed into Congressional law to OUTLAW Universal Health Care from federal funding and to prohibit alternate state health care programs!

And that is where we are today… in a commercial-controlled phony health care system under Medicare AND Medicaid that is designed and operates to funnel government funding into the bank accounts of the pharmaceutial industry-medical supply industry-health maintenance organization-and-commercial hospital corporations, and instead prohibits all Hawai’ian government funding from only going to the medical practitioners and clinics that directly serve the pubic which would cut out the tyrannical economic manipulations that the commercial corporations wield over doctors and medical research. — Ronald Kinum 2006″.

“He made reference to a person making $30,000/year and paying $15,000/year for health insurance. Well, that again is false. If a family makes $30,000/year, they qualify for government sponsored healthcare also known as Medicaid.”

This is not true. We make $30,000 a year and have 3 kids still at home. Do the kids mave Medicaid, yes, but me and my wife don’t qualify according to the state of Ohio.

1. The exchanges provide a competitive market place.
2. Young people can stay on their parent’s health care plan.
3. Other young people will have insurance through their employer.
4. Any individual with an income below 45% will qualify for assistance.
5. No one is required to pay more than 10% of their income.

I do not understand it. I think rand paul is as dumb or dumber than an average rock. I had heard and read that he didn’t have the state board certified medical license to practice optometry, he certified himself. Hadn’t EVER heard of that before, but considering it’s him…..ok. I stated that on line & some guy gave me colleges he is supposed to have attended, where he got his medical degree blah blah blah, like I care? You couldn’t coax, cajole or bribe me to like him. I don’t think he’s capable of telling the truth, and I don’t think he is in there to serve the interests of KY voters. None of the teapublicants are for the people. All they want to do is stonewall any valid legislation, let stuff die in committee, and vote 52 more times to repeal the ACA, even though it’s the best thing around. Bi-partisanship died & we didn’t even get to mourn it or throw a funeral for it. We are toast if these people stay in longer.

Sure he’s lying. That is what politicians do. I just accept it. My only viable other choice is move to a more citizen friendly nation. If we voted every DC politician out and got new ones, it wouldn’t change a thing. I don’t have the answer, if there even is one.